Officials of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) have told parents seeking to have the senior high school placements of their wards changed that not every complaint can result in a change of school.
The warning comes as thousands of parents and their wards continue to visit the National Resolution Centre to resolve issues arising from the 2026 SHS placement exercise.
For some of the parents, the problem is straightforward. Their wards have been placed in schools they do not want, while the schools they had hoped for were listed as their first or second choices.
But according to CSSPS officials, being unhappy with a placement does not necessarily mean the placement is wrong.
An official of the CSSPS, who was explaining the process to some aggrieved parents at the centre, said parents who deliberately selected highly competitive schools cannot expect the system to change their wards’ placements simply because they did not get their preferred school.
“This year we decided to let the selection be done after the results are released so that if your ward gets a grade like 30, you don’t select a school like Aburi Girls or Okuapeman but rather Osu Presec or Asuom.”
He added that “Some parents still selected big schools for their wards and now we have given the child a school, you’ve come that we should change it. We cannot change it for you.”
Not every complaint is a placement error
The situation is different when there appears to be a genuine problem with the placement.
The official said some students had been placed in schools that were not among the eight choices submitted by their parents.
Such cases can be reviewed, but that review does not automatically mean the student will be moved to one of the schools originally selected.
According to the official, some of these students were placed elsewhere because they did not qualify for any of their selected schools.
“We gave you that school because when we looked at the system, you don’t qualify for any of the schools you selected,” he said.
In such cases, parents may still be unhappy with the outcome, but the placement may remain unchanged.
“So even if you bring such a complaint and we look at your aggregate and it’s not good, we won’t change it for you. We’ll tell you to go to that school because we even helped you by placing you there,” he added.
Cases that can be corrected
There are, however, situations where CSSPS can intervene.
The official cited the case of a student being placed as a day student in a school that is far from their home.
He mentioned a student living at Maamobi who was placed as a day student at Ada SHS as an example of a situation that could be brought for review.
There could also be errors in the information captured in the system.
“If your ward is a boy but the system recognized him as a girl, that is a system error so we’ll change it for you,” he said.
Such cases are different from a parent simply wanting a preferred school after the placement has already been made.
What happens to students who were not placed?
For students who have not been placed in any school at all, the process is different.
The official said parents or guardians can go to an internet café and indicate that their ward has not been placed. The portal will then be opened to show schools with available vacancies from which they can make a new selection.
The option is intended for students who did not secure placement, rather than those who already have a placement but want to replace it with a more preferred school.
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